Saturday, September 7, 2013

Well, it's not that I've been lazy. As it turns out, selling a house, packing that house, and getting everything moved 1,000 miles south is kind of a big task. If you were wondering if we have a lot of stuff, it turns out we do. We had to move approximately 5,440 pounds of stuff. I guess "move" is actually kind of a stretch. We had a moving company do it for us. In any event, it was still a big deal.

James and I are still in the process of selling our house; the settlement closes in a little over a week. Once more, selling your house is a big deal. We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and we would sprint towards it... if we were the sprinting type.

We have a house in Lake Mary, Florida now... and I really love it. It's a bit bigger than the house we had in Pittsburgh, and there's a great backyard for the dog. He's still getting used to all the different noises we have down here, so he's been barking quite a bit lately. Last night, there was some sort of animal hissing and yowling in the dark, and the dog and I were both afraid. It could have been a raccoon, a possum, or maybe a really sad cat, but we didn't want to find out. There's certainly a lot of wildlife here in the sunshine state.

It's certainly been an exciting couple of weeks for me down here. Dad and I drove down to Florida on Sunday, August 25. On Monday, August 26, before I had even logged 24 hours in my new state, I was in a car accident. Luckily, I'm not really injured. I have a minor neck sprain, and I'll be going for a follow-up appointment at the PT in a couple weeks. How did it happen? Well, I was stopped at traffic signal, and the light was red. Once the light turned green, the driver behind me drove right into my rear bumper. I don't think they were paying attention. To anything. I was warned about the roads down here; I just didn't think someone would be a bad driver around me so quickly. Sheesh.

Now, about the knitting... There was a two-week period where I didn't knit a single stitch, which also contributed to my absence here, and also my general anxiety level. That dark time is behind me now. Thank goodness. I'm almost done with two different projects now!

I've been working on my third pair of socks. It turns out that I really love knitting socks! The pattern is called (Are you even ready for this?!) Hermione's Everyday Socks. HERMIONE! Did I tell you I live right by Hogwarts now?? I'm using Dream in Color Smooshy, one of my favorite sock yarns, in a nice mustard yellow-ish hue. Here's my project page. Don't they look a little vintage? And I really love a contrasting toe, don't you?

Also, I've been working on another shawl by Veera Välimäki (shocking), who I love. It's called Bolt, and it's part of a Brooklyn Tweed collection that was released earlier this year. The pattern was actually a birthday gift, from my great friend Yvonne. I'm knitting this shawl in two different colors of Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light (even more shocking), Ink and Tern. I've reached the last part of the shawl, where I knit garter forever, but it's been total TV knitting the whole way. Veera's pattern's are never that complicated, but the results are always amazing! I think this is the fourth shawl of hers that I've knit. I really love her patterns. Raveled here.

That's all I have for now, but I feel better finally getting back here. I'll be in California next week, so I may not be back before the middle of the month, but you can be sure I'll have a few project finished by then!